Punks broke my mailbox and smashed a pumpkin in my yard. (1 Viewer)

[StephenA]

Who the hell considers this a form a fun? My mailbox is in a million pieces now. I don't care about cleaning up the pumpkin, because I can just rake it up with all the yard debris. It just pisses me off that I have to pay money to fix up the mailbox.

I liked doing crazy things as a teen, but never once thought about going around destroying mailboxes and smashing pumpkins on peoples' lawns.

 

[Justin Lane]

Disgruntled youth I guess. Where I live, we had a rash of mailbox smashings and removals. People would get out of their cars and whollop them with a bat, or rip the mailboxes out of the ground and throw them someone elses fron yard.

That was until they decided to do it one day when there were people were around to watch and reported them to the police. The smashings stopped once they found out they were discovered. The saddest thing in this whole matter, was that the smashers were in their mid to late 20s, and I was actually familiar with a couple of the culprits from high school days. I guess if you have no aim or direction in life, performing acts of destruction is a releif from the reality of one's situation. I actually felt bad for these guys.

J

 

[Khoa Tran]

i went pumpkin smashing but only after holloween....never would smash mailboxes.....that's just bad karma

 

[Scott_lb]

I'd just wait a little while: The idiots were probably videotaping themselves and the tape will end up on the news!

 

[MarkHastings]

Stephen, that totally sucks :frowning: Sorry to hear about it.

Not that this will help, but here's a story that might make you laugh.

My teacher told us about these kids who would mow down his mailbox in the middle of the night. After about the 3rd time, he decided to "get even" - He had a steel mailbox made up and used a LARGE steel rod to put it in the ground. He cemented it in there REALLY good. He then covered up the pole with fake wood grain to make it seem like it was wooden.

The next time the kids tried to run it down, they found themselves crashed into the mailbox and in serious condition. Their car was totalled and they ended up going to the hospital

 

[Philip_G]

makes me glad we have community mailboxes, though they're just plastic

 

[Steve Ridges]

We used to have kids hitting our mailbox with bats as they drove past when I was a kid. I remember that my dad and I replaced the post with 8" PVC pipe filled with cement and rebar. We also got the "mega" mailbox that could supposidly survive being run over with a bulldozer. I still remember the smile on my dads face every time we'd find a broken bat on the lawn. Once we found a bent aluminum one. I bet that kids hands didn't stop hurting for weeks!

 

[ThomasC]

One of these days, one of those kids is going to sue for physical damages. :rolleyes

 

[Keith Mickunas]

One of these days, one of those kids is going to sue for physical damages.

I'm pretty sure it's already happened. I recall reading a story about a guy filling his with cement, or something like that, and it broke the kids arm. The parents said it was a booby trap which apparently is considered illegal. I don't know if he got away with it or not. It's a real shame that people can sue for something like that.

 

[ThomasC]

The parents said it was a booby trap which apparently is considered illegal.

It's *NOT* a friggin' booby trap because it's not *NATURAL* to go hitting down mailboxes in the first friggin' place!!! It might be a booby trap if he wrote "Hit this and win $10,000" on the mailbox, but the best way about it is to not be so friggin' stupid in the first place.

 

[Keith Mickunas]

Actually I found a story that referenced this, and that author said that the defendant was viewed as acting as judge and jury, or some such crap. I guess it'd be considered vigilante justice. It's a bunch of b.s. though, if the kid didn't hit the mailbox, he wouldn't have gotten hurt. Simple as that. It's a shame his parents would support his criminal activity like that. There's such a lack of personal responsibility anymore, it's really sad.

 

[StephenA]

It seems only one other house was hit on my street. I dunno why it'd be wrong or illegal to make it so your mailbox won't get knocked down or destroyed. If people are childish enough to go around destroying others' property, they deserve to get what happens to them, whether it's getting caught, getting hurt, or whatever.

 

[Gordon McMurphy]

There's no need for such mindless destruction. Here in Britain we don't have mailboxes; we all mostly have letterboxes on our doors, which makes more sense in my opinion - more practical. A4 'flats', small parcels and letters at Christmas must be a strain for the Postman/Postwoman. Do they knock on your door? Paperboys/girls also slip the newspapers through the letterbox - none of that overarm tossing over here, folks!

I don't know, kids these days. In my day...


Gordy

 

[VinhT]

Unfortunately, acts of vandalism such as destroying mailboxes can be considered normal. I apologize on the behalf of my generation. The bad seeds far outnumber the good ones. The youth of today are unable to comprehend the simple concept of respect. The sad thing is, (from what I have personally witnessed) each generation seems to merely get worse.

 

[Chris_Morris]

never would smash mailboxes.....that's just bad karma

Also, if IIRC, it's a federal offense as the Postmaster technically owns all mailboxes.


Chris

 

[ThomasC]

The bad seeds far outnumber the good ones.

I don't know, maybe they just get more publicity. What are you more likely to hear about on the 11 o'clock news, a double homicide or a crisis hotline operator who just saved someone from committing suicide?

 

[Scott Leopold]

It sickens me to see smashed pumpkins every fall. Just last week, I saw the worst example of this I'd ever seen. One of our neighbors decided to really do their house up nice for Fall. They had several corn stalks in the yard, a bunch of Indian corn, and 20-30 pumpkins of various sizes, along with some other Halloween decorations. While it sounds like a lot, it didn't look at all tacky, and went really well with the changing leaves. I got home from work Saturday or Sunday morning and saw a pile of 10-15 smashed pumpkins in the street in front of their house. Some punks had taken all the largest, nicest pumpkins and smashed them in a big pile in the street.

I'm pretty sure I know which neighborhood kid this. It's the same one I caught last year smashing a pumpkin in the street next to our house. I ran out and asked him what the hell he thought he was doing, and he just stared at me like a deer caught in the headlights. I asked him if he thought it was cool, and he still didn't answer. I told him it'd be real cool when he hit the wrong house and ended up having someone beating on him with a baseball bat. With that, he turn around and ran home.

This kid is about 15 now, and is allowed to stay out to all hours of the night. From what I've seen, discipline is a foreign word in their house. A few years back, when he was 10 or so, his mother was calling him in for dinner. He just kept yelling "F*** you, mom!" back at her until she finally said, "well, try to be home before dark." Needless to say, I don't find it all surprising that he's as big a punk as he is (I also didn't find it surprising when he got beat on by 4 seniors his first week of high school).

I never understood the mailbox thing, either. My parents had theirs hit once. We have city boxes, so it's not a worry for us. There was an incident near my parents' house a few years ago that surprised me when it didn't end up in court. Someone had been a frequent victim of the mailbox baseballers, and decided to reinforce his new box. I forget what all he did to it, but shortly after putting it up, some kids drove by with their bat, and the kid swinging ended up falling out of the car when he hit the mailbox. While he ended up in the hospital, it was nothing life-threatening. Thankfully, he had sensible parents who realized that he shouldn't benefit from his actions, and they chose not to sue.

 

[Todd K]

I would say the odds are likely that these people will try something like this again. They'll eventually get what's coming to them. When I was in high school, some kids I played basketball with would, for like 6 weeks in a row, drive by one of my friend's houses after our practice and run over his garbage cans.

Since they did it so often, we knew what was going on, so my friend rigged a board with nails. As soon as b-ball practice was over, the hoodlums all left in their car, and I placed a call to my friend, who proceeded to lay the trap and hide behind a tree in the front yard.

Well, a flat tire ensued, and the whole "operation" was busted wide open.

 

[Philip_G]

Also, if IIRC, it's a federal offense as the Postmaster technically owns all mailboxes.


Chris

then he should be super happy when you build him a concrete reinforced, bullet proof, bomb proof shrine to the US postal service in place of your mailbox

 

[MarkHastings]

Chris has a good point about the mailboxes belonging to the post office. I'm not positive, but I'd assume that Mailbox smashing can be considered a Federal Offense since it involves federal property. It would be worth looking into.

Don't F*** with the post office...seriously!

p.s. Why not get the local authorities involved? Mailboxes usually sit on town own property, I'm sure you can get the town to do something about it if you explain that people are destroying town property.